Latest news with #PatOBrien
Irish Times
3 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Inspector Mouse
Sir, – The great Basil Fawlty came to mind as I read Marie O'Halloran's report of the most recent findings of inspections made by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (' Dublin Lidl store forced to close after rodent sighting, ' August 13th). Among the findings was that a 'live mouse' was observed running across the floor of a supermarket premises in south Dublin. Those inspectors miss nothing but surely full marks can be awarded only for a report of a dead mouse making the crossing. – Yours, etc, PAT O'BRIEN, READ MORE Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.
Reuters
31-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Trump Mobile wants to sell you telehealth, car care and insurance
July 31 (Reuters) - Hours after the high-profile launch of Trump Mobile, a new Trump-branded mobile service provider, in June, callers to the company's customer support line were greeted with, "Omega Auto Care, how can I help you?" Two calls placed by Reuters that day to the mobile service's helpline rang to the Missouri-based auto-warranty company, which is part of Ensurety Ventures, a St. Louis, Missouri firm led by entrepreneur Pat O'Brien, who was introduced by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on June 16 as a member of the launch team providing "customer support and device protection" for Trump Mobile. Today, calls to the support line are answered by people who identify themselves as Trump Mobile support staff, but the first-day confusion speaks to the dizzying speed with which the Trump family has scrambled to set up the businesses. In addition to Trump Mobile, the family has established several ventures since President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in November. These include 12 new overseas development deals, a Trump-branded bible, a crypto trading platform World Liberty Financial - which has netted the president's family about $500 million since launch - a $TRUMP meme coin, and a stablecoin USD1. Trump Mobile is what's known as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, which has grown in popularity in recent years as various celebrities and causes leverage their cultural clout to launch branded wireless ventures. T-Mobile, for instance, acquired Ryan Reynolds-backed Mint Mobile for up to $1.35 billion in May. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, the actors behind the hit SmartLess podcast, announced SmartLess Mobile in June. At the launch of Trump Mobile, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. introduced the team, including O'Brien, Don Hendrickson, a telecom executive who will serve as Trump Mobile's head of mobile operations, and Eric Thomas, a Utah-based entrepreneur entrusted with 'device operations," as having "hundreds of years" of telecom experience between them. The service, pitched by the Trumps for "hardworking Americans," will bundle telemedicine services and roadside assistance, along with a gold-toned, $499 smartphone dubbed T1 "designed and built in the United States," which a spokesperson says will be manufactured at facilities in Alabama, California and Florida. The company is charging $100 to "get in line" to buy the phone as soon as it ships. A Reuters review of the backgrounds of the Trump Mobile team reveals an interconnected web of companies owned by the three men that will form the core of the company's offering to consumers. The Trump Phone will ship bundled with an array of services provided by companies connected to O'Brien's Ensurety Ventures, Hendrickson and Thomas, including roadside assistance, device protection, and telehealth services, including "easy ordering" of prescription medications, according to its website. Reached by phone, O'Brien would not disclose the type of phone that will ship to users but did say it would run on Google's Android mobile operating system. "The plan is going to be able to have the phone done by September and launching where we're fulfilling orders in early October," O'Brien said. He added that the brand will initially launch one phone and eventually develop many devices, adding that the T1 has gotten a lot of pre-orders. He did not specify how many. From the start, telecom industry experts challenged the notion that the phone - or any competitive mobile device - could be built in the U.S. "Domestically manufacturing a smartphone in the USA could easily double its price compared to a similar one made in Asia," said Ken Hyers, Director of Market Analysis at TechInsights. Within days of the announcement, Trump Mobile dropped the Made in USA claim from its website. Now, a Trump Mobile spokesperson said the T1 is being manufactured in three states with the goal of sourcing "as many materials and parts from the U.S. as the supply chain allows." "We will continue to build on that as more and more parts and equipment are made here in America," the spokesperson said. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. did not respond to a request for comment. Thomas did not respond to requests for comment and Hendrickson could not be reached for comment. Rather than building a telecom operation from scratch, Trump Mobile's wireless service will run on Liberty Mobile's network, a "virtual" network that leases cellular capacity from major carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, and is co-owned by the three members of the launch team, O'Brien, Thomas and Hendrickson. The company has not disclosed subscriber numbers, and O'Brien declined to provide them to Reuters. Incorporated in 2018 and registered to a condo in Trump Tower Miami, Liberty's service appears to be nascent, offering older smartphone models such as the iPhone 11. Its LinkedIn profile shows it has fewer than 50 employees and its website displays the text "lorem ipsum," typical placeholder text used to design pages before the content is final. Liberty's most recent annual filing in Florida dated February 7, 2025, lists Matthew Lopatin as its CEO and president, an entrepreneur who has founded and owns several businesses in Florida, filings show. Liberty and Lopatin did not respond to requests for comment. Hendrickson is listed as executive vice president of sales of Liberty Mobile. His son, Christian Hendrickson, worked at Liberty during the pandemic, according to his LinkedIn profile. Christian Hendrickson did not respond to a request for comment. Among the services that will be bundled with the phone is VMed Mobile, a company jointly owned by O'Brien, Hendrickson and Thomas that sells portable wellness trackers and telehealth subscriptions, O'Brien said. The company certifies its products through a Shenzhen, China-based subsidiary, according to FCC filings on the company's website. O'Brien told Reuters he has been "personally involved" in Liberty Mobile for three years and that Liberty originally reached out to him to provide health tracking services. Liberty's website lists VMed Mobile as a service. Telehealth services for Trump Mobile will be provided by Doctegrity, according to its website. Doctegrity is a Texas-based telehealth subscription platform led by Jesse Ohayon, according to his LinkedIn profile and a YouTube posted months ago. Ohayon and Doctegrity did not respond to requests for comment. O'Brien's Ensurety Ventures controls roadside assistance provider Drive America and device insurance vendor Omega Mobile Care, two other services advertised by Trump Mobile. A separate webpage for the Omega Mobile Care lists three device protection plans for cracked screens between $100 and $300. Drive America, founded in 1968 and once owned by Ford Motor and Citi Group, serves 12 million customers, according to its website. Omega Auto Care, the company that picked up the phone on Trump Mobile launch day, provides vehicle service contracts and extended warranties that cover the cost of repairs for a car's mechanical breakdowns after its factory warranty expires. "We are providing products through that relationship that people normally have to pay upward of $30 per month or more to receive those benefits," O'Brien said.
CNN
26-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Trump Mobile still claims its phone is ‘Made in the USA.' But it pulled that language from its site
Trump Mobile, the wireless service provider and phone company launched by the Trump Organization, no longer promises on its website that its upcoming smartphone will be made in America. The company adjusted language on its website on or around June 22 to drop the 'Made in USA' claim, according to captures of the site by the Internet Archive. As of June 25, the company says the T1 8002 phone was 'designed with American values in mind.' The website previously said the phone was 'made in the USA,' according to screenshots taken by CNN earlier in June and archived versions of the site from June 18. The Verge first reported the change. The revised language comes after industry analysts expressed skepticism about the phone's American origins, noting that its specifications resembled a phone made by a Chinese manufacturer. A spokesperson for Trump Mobile told CNN that 'the T1 phones are proudly being made in America.' 'Speculation to the contrary is simply inaccurate,' the statement said. The Trump Organization's press release from last week announcing Trump Mobile still says the $499 gold-colored phone will be 'proudly designed and built in the United States.' In the formal announcement from Trump Tower on June 16, Trump Mobile partner Pat O'Brien said, 'we are going to be doing phones that we are going to build in America.' But later, in a clip from an interview with conservative media personality Benny Johnson, Eric Trump said 'eventually all the phones can be built in the United States of America.' Ryan Reith, group vice president for the International Data Corporation's Worldwide Device Tracker, previously told CNN that terms like 'designed' and 'built' are very vague. That makes it unclear precisely what parts of the phone making process would have taken place in the US. Apple, for example, designs its phones in California, but assembles them in areas like China and India with components from international suppliers. Trump Mobile's website says the phone is 'brought to life right here in the USA.' 'There (are) no phones that are really being built in the US from start to finish,' Reith said last week when Trump Mobile was announced. Some of the T1 8002 phone's specifications also have changed, according to the Trump Mobile website. While the phone was originally listed as having a 6.78-inch screen, the website now says it has a 6.25-inch screen. That's a noticeable change in size similar to the difference between an iPhone 16 and an iPhone 16 Pro Max. It's rare for a tech company to make such a drastic change after announcing a phone. Trump Mobile also no longer lists the phone's memory, the part of the phone that stores app data and impacts performance when switching between apps. Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism, one of the only known companies to actually manufacture a cell phone in the United States, and Max Weinbach, an analyst at market research firm Creative Strategies, independently told CNN previously that they believe the originally announced T1 phone looks like a version of the already available Revvl 7 Pro 5G. That phone is made by China-based Wingtech, which provides manufacturing services for smartphones and other products, and retails for around $169 on Amazon. The debut of Trump Mobile came as President Trump, who is not involved in the daily operations of the Trump Organization run by his sons, has been pressuring tech giants like Apple and Samsung to make their smartphones in the United States. The move is part of a push to bring manufacturing jobs back to America, although experts have said making phones domestically at scale is a challenging, if not impossible, task – particularly under the September timeframe originally promised. 'Unless the Trump family secretly built out a secure, onshore or nearshore (fabrication) operation over years of work without anyone noticing, it's simply not possible to deliver what they're promising,' Weaver previously said.
Washington Post
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
NBA draft lottery: Cavaliers and Magic have landed the most top picks in the event's 40-year history
Patrick Ewing was poised to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft 40 years ago when Commissioner David Stern began the first draft lottery by pulling a logo of the Golden State Warriors out of an envelope — indicating they would select seventh. Pat O'Brien, announcing for CBS, proclaimed: 'And the first team to hate the lottery.'
Travel Daily News
07-05-2025
- Travel Daily News
Shannon Airport welcomes new recruits to Airport Search Unit
Shannon Airport welcomes 14 new security officers ahead of a busy summer, enhancing operations with 3D screening and accessibility training. Shannon Airport has welcomed fourteen new members of its airport security team in anticipation of a busy summer schedule. The new Airport Search Unit (ASU) officers have completed training which includes the operation of the airport's state of the art three-dimensional X-ray screening system. It is this system, with built in explosive detection software, that eliminates the need for passengers travelling through Shannon Airport to separate their 100ml liquids or electronics from their cabin bags when going through security. The training also included Cabin Baggage Search, Manual Handling, Sunflower Hidden Disability Training and much more. This was given by inhouse instructors and involved both classroom and practical training, with their certification completed by examiners on behalf of the Irish Aviation Authority. The new team members hail from Limerick, Clare, Tipperary and as far afield as Finland. They come from a variety of backgrounds including hospitality, retail, and healthcare as well as some having progressed through other departments of the airport such as the Mobility Assistance Unit. The fourteen new recruits received their official certificates this week at an event welcoming them to the Shannon Airport team. Speaking at this event, Pat O'Brien, Chief Officer Shannon Airport Police Fire Service and Security said: 'The Airport Search Unit (ASU) officers are a vital part of both Shannon Airport security and the customer experience, which is always to the forefront of our operations here. I would like to congratulate our newly trained ASU officers and thank them for the commitment they have shown throughout their intensive training programme. I would also like to thank Jean Moloney, Deputy Chief Security Officer, Katie Duggan-Hastings, lead instructor, Leona McGuigan and Padraic Whelan instructors, together with their colleagues, for the wonderful training they have given these new members.' Katie Duggan-Hastings, Screening Supervisor and lead instructor said: 'There was a lot of learning across the training programme as most didn't come from a security background. They are a lovely group and it's wonderful to see them being certified now – a great achievement for all involved.' With 36 routes to 11 countries available throughout the summer schedule, and over 53,000 people having passed through the airport during the May bank holiday period alone, it's set to be a busy start for the newest team members. The recruits are excited to join the Shannon Airport team and are looking forward to helping passengers through security at Ireland's favourite airport in the months ahead.
